10 February 2024

Posted by Sukie & Claire

Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry

Hi Writers!

This week we explored poetry and, as it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, had a go at making our very

own poetry potions.

In our check-in we described our weeks as a piece of furniture.

 Indie’s week was a lamp – constantly turning on and off and very busy.

 Hamish described his week as a guinea-pig hair sofa – wanting to lie down after some

boring days, and enjoying looking after some guinea pigs whose owners are on holiday

 Marissa said her week was like a guinea-pig playpen or funfair set inside a sofa – lots of

excitement and fun with the guinea pigs

 Claire described her week as a round, Bohemian rug – exotic and a bit frayed at the

edges.

 Sukie said their week was like a chest of drawers. Lots of unrelated things going on but

all mostly organised

Next we had our reading check-in:

 Hamish: ‘Bunny Vs Monkey: The Impossible Pig’ and ‘Demons of the Deep’ – a famous

Choose Your Own Adventure book

 Indie: ‘Varjak Paw’ and ‘Queen Elizabeth II’

 Marissa: ‘The School For Good and Evil’ and ‘A Spoonful of Murder’

 Sukie: ‘Useful Work Vs Useless Toil’ by William Morris

 Claire: ‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’ and ‘The Northern Lights’

We started off talking about poetry and what it might be for. Marissa suggested that it’s mostly

for English tests at school or written to make money, and we discussed how school can make so

many fun and beautiful things seem difficult or dull, and talked about encouraging each other to

try new things even if school doesn’t inspire us to explore them itself.

Claire read us the introduction to ‘The Poetry Pharmacy’ by William Sieghart, which had a

beautiful description of poetry’s role as ‘a crystallisation of feeling, thought and experience’, and

we spoke about poetry as a tool to get in touch with one’s feelings, to express things that are

hard to say, and to connect with others.

Picking some emotional states that might need some poetic pharmakeia, we read:

 ‘Ironing’ by Vicki Feaver as a cure for ‘a lack of zest for life’

 ‘All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter’ by J.R.R. Tolkein as a remedy for ‘old age’

 ‘I Want To See You’ by Rumi and ‘Two Cures For Love’ by Wendy Cope, both suggested

for ‘infatuation’

Then we started on our poetic potions. We had the choice of a love potion, a love cure/anti-love

potion or a poison. Indie chose to write a love and poison potion poem, while Hamish worked

on a potion that would turn its drinker into a crocodile, and Marissa wrote a love potion in the

form of a perfume that would make everyone fall in love with the wearer.

After some time, we shared our drawings and the names, ingredients, dosage instructions and

side effects of our potions.

Indie: a love potion filled with happy love magic

Hamish: Crocodilian – this potion is not found in supermarkets, and is most revolting and toxic.

A risky choice!

Marissa: a love potion for evil, made with snakeskin, the sound of a howler monkey and a wart

from your best friend…

We won’t be at Forest Arts this weekend (17 th February) due to half term, but we look forward

to seeing everyone on the 24 th for our next workshop: scriptwriting and dialogue!

Don’t forget, the Shaftesbury Tales writing competition has opened! Open to writers living in

Dorset (so that’s at least some of you!), it has age categories of 11 & under; 12-16; 17-19; 25 &

under, and ‘open to all’. It’s a community project with a procession from Corfe to Shaftesbury,

performing the tales of people living in the Dark Ages in villages along the route. The deadline is

18 th March.

Please do spread the word and submit something – if you are looking for some extra eyes on

your work, do come along to the Junior (7-11) & Young (11-14) Writer workshops at Forest

Arts, New Milton. Just as a reminder, we run on Saturday mornings (09:30 for Junior Writers

and 11:30 for Young Writers) and you can sign up by contacting the Forest Arts Centre directly,

or come along and we can add you to the list!

Previous Next

Our blogs

Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry